Social Media Trends to Watch Out For.

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Have you seen engagement drop? Or are you interested in knowing what trends you should be watching for your pages? Below are a few of the social media trends that you can utilise. As social communication and digital marketing are linked together, the strategy you incorporate should have these trends which can help with increase in engagement.

In 2020, we saw the world almost come to a standstill because of COVID-19. But we all adapted to working from home and being online all the time and many businesses had to adjust. Lots of businesses starting utilising social media to keep growing. 2020 is over and we are almost halfway 2021 and social media platforms continue to grow and introduce new features. An example of this is Twitter, they have introduced a feature known as 'fleets' which works in a similar fashion to Instagram Stories.

We adopt new social trends pretty quickly, for example, a few years back Snapchat was famous for its content which would disappear and now you have Instagram following a similar feature which is Instagram stories. Because of how quick we adopt these new treads in social media, small business owners and marketers need to constantly review strategies that they are using and keep up to date.

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Live streams are and will stay popular

Live streaming has become incredibly popular over the past year, with everyone working from home, to social distance, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. All those face-to-face meetings became Zoom meeting. Gamers have always used live streaming but many people have moved over to live streaming through Twitch or Facebook Gaming. Concerts turned to live streams where the artists can play from the comfort of their home.

With all that has gone on with COVID-19 over the last year it is only natural that live streaming features become more popular. Facebook saw a huge increase in its live streaming features being utilised.

@mealswithmax has been utilising live streaming on TikTok and has how to videos for creating lovely tasty meals that are also healthy. He has seen steady growth over the year thanks to this.

Lots of brands offer different things and it can be anything from live tutorials, tips, special discounts for products, behind the scenes, or any other content that you think your audience will engage with.

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Augmented & Virtual reality

With the lockdown and stay at home orders that have occurred over the last year, people are wanting more meaningful ways to interact virtually. Virtual reality (VR) allows for those types of interactions to occur.

Being able to interact through VR with people creates a sense of being together whether you are down the road or halfway across the world. In a time like this, people need that experience and going forward in 2021 VR is going to be popular on social media platforms.

Facebook is a prime example, Facebook Horizon, and it has been using it's Oculus VR platform to beta test a virtual world. Check it out.

‍https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8eXZco46Q&ab_channel=Oculus

Augmented reality (AR), similarly to VR, has grown over the last year. AR doesn't require any type of hardware beyond a smartphone, which makes it more accessible than VR. AR relates to interactive photo filters that can change faces, background or anything else within the photo/video.

AR is effective for engagement if done correctly. Brands are buying into the AR social trend by creating their own filters with unique features that will incorporate their products or brand.

AR filters can be any products that can be virtually mapped onto a user's body. All the user has to do is select the filter and the products are produced onto the background or on them. With filters like these consumers can 'try on' products and can help envision the products which in turn would likely drive sales. An excellent example of this was ASOS and their virtual catwalk which they showcased a couple of years back.

Content Format: Stories

So you might see this one and think, stories have been around for a while that isn't really new. You are right, they have been around for a while, but they have become as popular as posting to your feed. The great thing about stories is that post content to the top of a user's social app and can even notify you that a story has been posted by someone you follow.

Instagram has over 500 million users who utilise Stories, and even though Stories have been dominant for Instagram they will continue to be used and won't be going away any time soon.

It's important that businesses take advantage of Stories and take an organised approach and plan for Stores as a content format.

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Social Commerce

Social commerce is growing with platforms introducing ecommerce features. Facebook and Instagram have already this feature where you can set up a product catalogue on your page.

The great thing about this is that users can stay on the social app while browsing the products that are available. For example, you can set up your Facebook Shop so that users that are visiting your page can shop your products from within your page directly. A great example of this is 'Oodie' on Facebook. You can see their page and click on the "shop" tab and their products will show up to allow purchasing.

Facebook's dynamic advertising is a neat little feature which automatically lets the best products be shown to you audience in their feeds, which can allow them to go instantly to the product page.

Video is Still Growing

Video is a highly effective form of content and its popularity has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of social media. Despite the fact that so many of us consume online videos on a daily basis, many marketers still aren’t using video as part of their digital marketing strategy or aren’t seeing the best results.

Video content is extremely popular and growing still. To put it into perspective, people are four times more likely to watch YouTube than any non-video social platforms, another crazy statistic is that 68% of people who watch YouTube use it to make a purchasing decision.

Videos are a useful tool when it comes to helping potential buyers understand and learn about the products. Consumers will usually buy a product when they understand what it does and how it works and how it can help them. Its not surprising that videos are so good and helping boost product sales and understanding.